Interpretable unsupervised decision trees

ABSTRACT

An unsupervised decision tree is constructed, involving the data records or patterns that do not posses any class labels. The objective of clustering or segmenting the data set is to discover subsets of data records that possess homogeneous characteristics. In the context of clustering, namely grouping or segmenting data sets without any supervised information, an interpretable decision tree is recognized as beneficial in various contexts such as customer profiling, text mining, and image and video categorization.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0001] The present invention relates to interpretable unsupervised decision trees.

BACKGROUND

[0002] Decision trees are widely used as classification tools. One major advantage of decision tree are their interpretability that is, the decision can be interpreted in terms of a rule set. Interpretability, in this context, means that at every node of a decision tree, the branching decision is based upon the value of a single attribute, and the choice of the attribute is based upon a splitting criterion. The net result is that each leaf of the decision tree represents a cluster, and the path from the root to the leaf defines a rule that describes the cluster.

[0003] Hierarchical clustering involves first dividing a data set (consisting of a set of patterns) into a certain number of clusters at a relatively coarse level, then further segmenting each of these coarse clusters into relatively finer levels until a “stop” criterion is satisfied.

[0004] A similar clustering technique can also be conversely performed in a “bottom-up” manner. A large number of clusters at a fine level of resolution are clustered into broader categories at each successive level. In either case, each level represents a degree of resolution or coarseness.

[0005] Various existing clustering techniques are used to manage information. Bellot et al (in Patrice Bellot and Marc El-Beze, Clustering by means of unsupervised decision trees or hierarchical and K-means like algorithms, RIAO 2000 Conference Proceedings, Paris, France, Apr. 12-14, 2000, pp. 344 to 363) describe a decision tree provided for text categorization. Information about text clusters is used in conjunction with supervised information about whether a document is useful or not useful to a user. The total information content in the cluster of useful documents and in the cluster of non-useful documents is used to build a decision tree.

[0006] Held et al [Marcus Held and J. M. Buhmann, Unsupervised on-line learning of decision trees for hierarchical data analysis, Proc. Advances of the Neural Information Processing Systems (NEPS97), 1997] describe a decision tree or a hierarchy representing the clusters is provided based on minimization of a criterion function that is generally used for clustering using EM (expectation-maximization) and soft k-means (that is, fuzzy k-means) algorithms. The data set is divided into two clusters at each level in such a way that the division minimizes the criterion function. This technique is essentially a hierarchical form of an EM-based clustering algorithm. Thus, this technique provides a hierarchical clustering algorithm in which the first level clusters (two clusters) are formed at a relatively coarse resolution. Relatively finer resolution clusters are formed down the hierarchy.

[0007] Liu et al [Bing Liu, Yiyuan Xia, and Phillip S. Yu, Clustering through decision tree construction, IBM Research Report, RC 21695, 2000] describe injecting noisy data values into a data set. A decision tree is the provided by classifying the original data values and the noisy data values, by assuming that the original data values and the noisy data values belong to two respectively different classes. Although the objective is to build an unsupervised decision tree from the unlabelled data, the method for building a supervised decision tree has been applied here and the performance of this technique depends upon the amount of noisy data injected into the original data set.

[0008] In the above-described techniques, a binary decision tree is formed, rather than a generalized n-ary decision tree. In this case, n is the number of child nodes created at a node. Thus, n is a variable that depends on the type of the data at each node of every level of the decision tree.

[0009] Existing techniques provide hierarchical clusters in which each cluster level does not have any direct interpretability. In other words, in order to interpret a generated hierarchy, the clusters at each node need to be separately analyzed. Also, most of the existing techniques create a binary hierarchy rather than a generic n-ary decision tree. Accordingly, a need clearly exists for an improved manner of performing hierarchical clustering.

SUMMARY

[0010] An unsupervised decision tree is constructed, involving the data records or patterns that do not posses any class labels. The objective of clustering or segmenting the data set is to discover subsets of data records that possess homogeneous characteristics. In the context of clustering, namely grouping or segmenting data sets without any supervised information, an interpretable decision tree is recognized as beneficial in various contexts such as customer profiling, text mining, and image and video categorization.

[0011] At any given node, an attribute is selected in such a manner that, if clustering is performed solely based on that attribute, the resulting inhomogeneity is minimized. Thus, a direct interpretability can be achieved for the unsupervised decision tree in the context of clustering.

[0012] A set of patterns at a node is split, based on a certain criterion that is a function the individual attributes. If a splitting criterion is most highly satisfied for a certain attribute, then child nodes are created under the relevant node based upon that attribute, and one subset of patterns is allocated to each to the child nodes.

[0013] In the supervised decision tree, at any given node the attribute is selected in such a manner that if classification is performed based solely on that attribute, then the resulting impurity (that is, the amount of mixing of data from different classes) is minimized. Thus, a direct interpretability for an attribute at a node of the decision tree is achieved in the context of classification.

[0014] Interpretability, in this context, means that the branching decision at each node is determined by the value of a certain attribute or combination of a subset of attributes, and the choice of the attribute(s) is based on certain splitting criterion that satisfies the objective of the classification process. Consequently, each leaf node of the tree representing a class is interpreted by the path from the root node to that leaf node. The path can be explicitly described in terms of a rule such as “if $A_(—)1$ and $A_(—)2$ and $A_(—)3$ then class $C_(—)1$”. Thus, a class structure is represented by a set of leaf nodes and consequently, a class can be described by a set of rules as coded in the intermediate nodes of the decision tree.

[0015] Accordingly, a supervised decision tree does not associate any direct interpretability of the clusters based on the attributes. In other words, to interpret the hierarchy of the existing algorithms, the clusters at each node need to be separately analyzed. Also, most of the existing methods create a binary hierarchy, and generalizing these methods to generate an n-ary decision tree with a variable n can be difficult.

[0016] An unsupervised decision tree that is interpretable in terms of rules involving the attributes of the patterns in the data set is presented herein.

[0017] In overview, a decision tree is constructed without any supervised information such as labels for patterns, so that the decision tree is interpretable directly in terms of the attributes of the data set. Each path from the root to a leaf node defined a rule in terms of the attributes, and each leaf node denotes a cluster. Various kinds of attributes can be accommodated, such as binary, numeric, ordinal, and categorical (nominal) attributes.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0018]FIG. 1 is a flowchart representing a sequence of steps involved in an algorithm for constructing an interpretable decision tree.

[0019]FIG. 2 is a flowchart representing a sequence of steps involved is segmenting data values in the algorithm represent in FIG. 1.

[0020]FIG. 3 is a schematic representation of a computer system suitable for performing the techniques described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0021] Techniques are described herein for constructing an interpretable decision tree. In summary, these techniques are used for:

[0022] (i) measuring the inhomogeneity at a given node of the unsupervised decision tree,

[0023] (ii) selecting the attribute that gives rise to maximum amount of inhomogeneity when clustering is performed solely based on the attribute, and

[0024] (iii) segmenting the patterns or data records under the node based on the attribute and assigning them to the resultant nodes.

Notation

[0025] Before proceeding further, a brief explanation is provided of notation use herein. Let DN be the set of patterns or data records available at a node N. Let each pattern x_(i) be described by an n-dimensional vector x_(i)=[x_(i1), x_(i2),·c, x_(in)], where n is the number of attributes available at node N. Let the set of n attributes available at node N be denoted by FN={f₁, f₂,·c, f_(n)}.

Data Structure

[0026] A tree data structure is maintained to represent the unsupervised decision tree. To build the decision tree, all the nodes are explored “level-wise”. That is, the nodes at the first level (the root node) are explored first, and the child nodes are created at the second level. Then, all nodes at the second level are explored to create child nodes of all nodes in the second level. Then, these child nodes are explored, and so on.

[0027] Consequently, the formation of the decision tree indexes the nodes in a breadth-first manner. One can also build the decision tree in a depth-first manner using the recursive procedural calls, if required.

[0028] Two data structures are used: (i) a list of nodes to represent the nodes to be explored at a certain level, and (ii) a tree data structure to store the decision tree. Initially, the tree data structure consists of only the root node. The list is updated for every level.

Algorithm

[0029] The algorithm is explained as follows with reference to the steps 110 to 180 listed below. FIG. 1 flowcharts this sequence of steps.

[0030]110 Create a list L of nodes to be explored. Initialize L with the root node (for example, node number 1). The root node has all attributes and patterns available. Start with the initialized list L.

[0031]120 For every node in the list L, perform the following steps: Let a given node in the list L be N of the decision tree. Determine the feature or attribute (for example, f_(i)) in the set of attributes available to the node N (for example, FN) for which the information loss is maximum if that attribute is deleted from the list FN (that is, find the attribute that is most informative).

[0032] Information loss is measured in terms of the loss of inhomogeneity of the data set DN available to the node N. The information content is assumed to be minimum if the data set DN is totally homogeneous and the information content increases with the increase of inhomogeneity in the data set with respect to the attribute.

[0033] The feature or attribute, thus selected, is interpreted as the deciding feature or attribute in the list of attributes at the given node.

[0034]130 Determine whether the inhomogeneity at the node with respect to one of the attributes, for example,f_(i), is greater than a predetermined threshold (that is, if the data available to node N can be segmented). If the inhomogeneity determined is greater than the previously defined threshold, proceed to step 140. Otherwise, return to step 120. segment the data set DN based on the selected attributed.

[0035] The segmentation described above is based on a single attribute, and can be performed in many different ways such as valley detection, K-means, and leader clustering. The algorithm used to perform segmentation based on a single attribute should be relatively fast for the unsupervised decision tree to be useful. This process partitions the set of patterns DN into, for example, KN segments.

[0036] One method of partitioning the data into a suitable number of segments is described below.

[0037]150 If data records are segmented in step 140, create KN child nodes for the node N and assign each of the KN data segments created in step 140 to one child node. Allocate each child node the set of attributes FN={f_(i)}. Add these child nodes to the new list for the next level (for example, L·f) if the set of attributes FN={f_(i)} is non-empty.

[0038] For example, if the data set DN is split into 3 segments DN1, DN2, and DN3 then 3 child nodes N1, N2, and N3 are created and allocated the data sets DN1, DN2, and DN3 respectively. Each child node is allocated a set of attributes which is the set available in the parent node minus the attribute based on which the data segmentation was performed. Each of the three child nodes is attributed a set of attributes FN={f_(i)}. Update the decision tree data structure to store the hierarchical information that child nodes have been created for the node N.

[0039]160 Return to step 120 for the next node in the list L, if the list L is not empty. Update the decision tree data structure correspondingly. If the list L is empty, stop.

[0040] The data structure for the decision tree stores the hierarchy and the set of patterns available for each child node. Each leaf node represents a cluster. Starting from the root node, the structure stores the attribute information based on which the child nodes are created and this information imparts a direct interpretability of the unsupervised decision tree.

Segmentation

[0041] In one implementation, segmentation of the set of patterns in Step 140 is performed as described below with reference to the following steps 210 to 270. FIG. 2 flowcharts these steps 210 to 270.

[0042]210 Determine whether an attribute is nominal (that is, categorical), or numerical.

[0043]220 If the attribute is nominal or categorical, as determined in step 210, then patterns with each particular value of the attribute are placed in a separate segment. For example, if colour is the attribute then all patterns with a particular value for colour can be placed in one data segment. If there are KN possible values for the attribute, at most KN data segments or subsets are obtained.

[0044]230 If the attribute is numerical or ordinal, as determined in step 210, then for all patterns available at that node, sort the values of the selected attribute in ascending order.

[0045]240 Consider the sorted values (in ascending order) of the selected attribute for all data records. That is, the sorted list looks like [v₁, v₂, v₃, . . . , v_(N)] for N data records at a node, where v₁<v₂<v₃<. . . <v_(N), in which v_(i) is the attribute value for some data record j and takes the i-th position in the ascending sorted list. Compute the gaps between consecutive sorted values. That is, compute v2-v₁, v₃-v₂, v₄-v₃, . . . , V_(N)-V_(N-1).

[0046]250 Identify segment boundaries for which the gap between two consecutive data values (for the chosen attribute) is more than a certain threshold. Thus, for a certain predetermined threshold of the gap, several segments of the attribute values (for example, KN segments) are generated.

[0047] The records or patterns in the data set are then divided in such a way that the patterns, having attribute values of the chosen attribute in the same segment of attribute value of the chosen attribute, fall into the same data segment. Thus, at most KN data segments are generated from the data set. If the threshold of the gap is small, a large number of segments is created and for a large threshold, few clusters are created.

[0048]260 Determine whether the number of data values in a cluster/segment is less than a certain predefined threshold

[0049]270 If the number of data values in a cluster/segment is less than a certain predefined threshold, as determined in step 260, then data in the cluster/segment is merged to the “nearest” cluster/segment.

Relative Importance

[0050] Determining the importance of an attribute (or inhomogeneity with respect to an attribute) at any node N is described in terms of loss of information in the data set if the attribute is dropped.

[0051] Let μ_(ij) be the degree of similarity of two data values xi and xj in the data set available at a given node N such that μ_(ij)=1 indicates that x_(i) and x_(j) should belong to the same cluster, μ_(ij)=0 indicates that x_(i) and x_(j) should belong to different clusters.

[0052] A value of μ_(ij)ε[0,1] indicates the degree of belief that the two data values x_(i) and x_(j) should belong to the same cluster. A simple way of formulating μ_(ij) is given in Equation (1) below. $\begin{matrix} {\mu_{ij} = {f\left( {1 - \frac{d_{ij}}{d_{\max}}} \right)}} & (1) \end{matrix}$

[0053] In Equation (1) above, d_(ij) is the distance d(x_(i),x_(j)) between the data values x_(i) and x_(j). This distance is not necessarily the same as the Euclidian distance. The parameter d_(max) is the maximum distance between any pair of points in the data set DN. This parameter is specified below in Equation (1,1). $\begin{matrix} {d_{\max} = {\max\limits_{{Xp},{{Xq} \in D_{N}}}\left\{ {d\left( {x_{p},x_{q}} \right)} \right\}}} & (1.1) \end{matrix}$

[0054] In Equation (1) above, the function f(.) is a monotone function (for example an S-function or a sigmoidal function). The distance d_(ij) can also be normalized by some other factors (instead of d_(max)) such as the average distance d_(av) between all pairs of data values available at that node, or some multiple or fraction of d_(av) or d_(max). If an attributed f_(a) is dropped from the list of attributes then the distance d_(ij) changes, and therefore the degree of similarity between a pair of data values changes.

[0055] Let the new degree of similarity between a pair of data values be denoted by a μ_(ij) which is computed exactly as in Equation (1) with a reduced dimensionality, that is, with the attribute f_(a) dropped from the list. The measure of importance for the attribute f_(a) is computed as the relative entropy given by Equation (2) below. $\begin{matrix} {H_{a} = {- \left( {{\sum\limits_{i,j}{\mu \quad {{ij}\left( {1 - {\mu \quad \underset{ij}{a}}} \right)}}} + {\mu \quad {\underset{ij}{a}\left( {1 - {\mu \quad {ij}}} \right)}}} \right)}} & (2) \end{matrix}$

[0056] The relative entropy Ha is computed (using Equation (2)) for all attributes f_(a) and the attribute f_(k) is selected for which this attribute is maximum. Thus, a single numerical value representing relative “importance” is obtained. The importance can be computed in many other ways such as the Kullback-Leibler divergence criterion (outlined with respect to Equation (3) below). The Kullback-Leibler divergence criterion is applicable if the distances between the pair of data values are described in terms of a probability distribution p(d) and p(d_(a)) where d represents the distance between a pair of points in the original attribute space (that is, in the space of attributes available to node N) and d_(a) is the distance the space of attributes with the attribute f_(a) omitted. $\begin{matrix} {H_{a} = {- {\int{{p(d)}{\log \left( \frac{p(d)}{p\left( d^{a} \right)} \right)}\delta \quad d}}}} & (3) \end{matrix}$

[0057] A discretized version for computing the Kullback-Leibler divergence is presented as Equation (4) below. $\begin{matrix} {H_{a} = {- {\sum\limits_{s}{{h(d)}\quad {\log \left( \frac{h(d)}{h_{a}\left( d^{a} \right)} \right)}}}}} & (4) \end{matrix}$

[0058] In Equation (4) above, h(d) and h_(a)(d^(a)) are the normalized histograms of the distances d and d^(a) between pair of points. The summation is computed over all slots in the histogram.

[0059] Instead of computing the loss of information while dropping an attribute from the list, the gain in information can also be computed while an attribute is considered alone. In that case, the importance of an attribute is computed as presented in Equation (5) below. $\begin{matrix} {H_{a} = {- {\sum\limits_{i,j}{\mu \quad {\underset{ij}{a}\left( {1 - {\mu \quad \underset{ij}{a}}} \right)}}}}} & (5) \end{matrix}$

[0060] In Equation (5) above, μ_(ij) indicates the degree of similarity between two data values x_(i) and x_(j) considering the attributed, ƒ_(a) that is, the distance between the data values x_(i) and x_(j) is measured only in terms of the attributed ƒ_(a).

Computer Hardware and Software

[0061]FIG. 3 is a schematic representation of a computer system 300 that can be used to implement the techniques described herein. Computer software executes under a suitable is operating system installed on the computer system 300 to assist in performing the described techniques. This computer software is programmed using any suitable computer programming language, and may be considered as comprising various software code means for achieving particular steps.

[0062] The components of the computer system 300 include a computer 320, a keyboard 310 and mouse 315, and a video display 390. The computer 320 includes a processor 340, a memory 350, input/output (I/O) interfaces 360, 365, a video interface 345, and a storage device 355.

[0063] The processor 340 is a central processing unit (CPU) that executes the operating system and the computer software operating under the operating system. The memory 350 typically includes random access memory (RAM) and read-only memory (ROM), and is used under direction of the processor 340.

[0064] The video interface 345 is connected to video display 390 and provides video signals for display on the video display 390 for the benefit of the user. User input to operate the computer 320 is provided from the keyboard 310 and mouse 315. The storage device 355 can include a disk drive or any other suitable storage medium.

[0065] Each of the components of the computer 320 is connected to an internal bus 330 that includes data, address, and control buses, to allow components of the computer 320 to communicate with each other via the bus 330.

[0066] The computer system 300 can be connected to one or more other similar computers via an input/output (I/O) interface 365 using a communication channel 385 to a network, represented in this case as the Internet 380.

[0067] The computer software may be recorded on a portable storage medium, in which case, the computer software program is accessed by the computer system 300 from the storage device 355. Alternatively, the computer software can be accessed directly from the Internet 380 by the computer 320. In either case, a user can interact with the computer system 300 using the keyboard 310 and mouse 315 to operate the programmed computer software executing on the computer 320.

[0068] Other configurations or types of computer systems can be equally well used to implement the techniques herein, as is understood by those skilled in the relevant art. The computer system 300 is described only as an example of a particular type of system suitable for implementing the described techniques.

Conclusion

[0069] A method, computer software, and a computer system are each described herein in the context of generating an interpretable decision tree based upon unlabelled data. Various alterations and modifications can be made to the techniques and arrangements described herein, as would be apparent to one skilled in the relevant art. 

We claim:
 1. A method for generating an interpretable decision tree for data sets that do not have supervised information, the method comprising of the steps of: (a) determining a measure of importance of a selected attribute of a data set; (b) classifying data of the data set into a number of subsets based upon the selected attribute; and (c) applying a stopping criteria for splitting a node based on a measure of homogeneity or inhomogeneity in the data set.
 2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the homogeneity with respect to the attribute is measured by the relative entropy between the original data set and the data set with the attribute omitted from the attribute list.
 3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the stopping criterion is based upon the homogeneity or inhomogeneity measure with respect to an attribute.
 4. The method as claimed in claim 2, wherein relative entropy is measured using any one or more of the following measures: (i) information theoretic measures, (ii) probabilistic measures, (iii) uncertainty measures or (iv) fuzzy set theoretic measures.
 5. Computer software, recorded on a medium, for generating an interpretable decision tree for data sets that do not have supervised information, the computer software comprising: (a) software code means for determining a measure of importance of a selected attribute of a data set; (b) software code means for classifying data of the data set into a number of subsets based upon the selected attribute; and (c) software code means for applying a stopping criteria for splitting a node based on a measure of homogeneity or inhomogeneity in the data set.
 6. Computer software as claimed in claim 5, wherein the homogeneity with respect to the attribute is measured by the relative entropy between the original data set and the data set with the attribute omitted from the attribute list.
 7. Computer software as claimed in claim 5, wherein the stopping criterion is based upon the homogeneity or inhomogeneity measure with respect to an attribute.
 8. Computer software as claimed in claim 6, wherein relative entropy is measured using any one or more of the following measures: (i) information theoretic measures, (ii) probabilistic measures, (iii) uncertainty measures or (iv) fuzzy set theoretic measures.
 9. A computer system for generating an interpretable decision tree for data sets that do not have supervised information, the computer system comprising: (a) means for determining a measure of importance of a selected attribute of a data set; (b) means for classifying data of the data set into a number of subsets based upon the selected attribute; and (c) means for applying a stopping criteria for splitting a node based on a measure of homogeneity or inhomogencity in the data set.
 10. The computer system as claimed in claim 9, wherein the homogeneity with respect to the attribute is measured by the relative entropy between the original data set and the data set with the attribute omitted from the attribute list.
 11. The computer system as claimed in claim 9, wherein the stopping criterion is based upon the homogeneity or inhomogeneity measure with respect to an attribute.
 12. The computer system as claimed in claim 10, wherein relative entropy is measured using any one or more of the following measures: (i) information theoretic measures, (ii) probabilistic measures, (iii) uncertainty measures or (iv) fuzzy set theoretic measures. 